“Results are driven by technology, meaningful connections, active listening, resilience, collaboration, and operational excellence.”
It’s not about numbers. It’s not about ROI. And it’s more than customers. It’s about impact. Impact means different things to different people, and it isn’t always easy to measure. Yet across every field, impact is what endures. And nowhere is impact more tangible than in startups, which are driven by purpose, conviction, and resilience.
1) Aaqib Gadit, Founding Partner & Co-Founder, Disrupt.com
When you build ventures that compound each other’s capabilities, scale becomes inevitable. Each venture we power has a founder-led approach in the form of expertise, capital, and leadership, amplifying the unique value-add to support growth for all our ventures. That’s how we engineer compounding effects into company DNA and create an unfair advantage to scale at speed.
2) Dana Love, President, PoobahAI
Across a career spanning enterprise software, AI, and large-scale systems, it has become clear that technology creates the greatest impact when it removes barriers and broadens access. That belief guided our work this year, delivering a clearer, faster, and more attainable path to blockchain innovation. In 2025, the impact for us was scaled by making blockchain creation far more accessible. Instead of limiting innovation to highly technical teams, we focused on empowering founders, creators, and builders to launch real Web3 products in a fraction of the time required.
3) Dr. Moataz BinAli, CEO, Magna AI
In 2025, I learned that scaling impact is ultimately about choosing partners who help you build with precision. Launching Magna AI at GITEX with the combined strength of Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH), and powered by next-generation NVIDIA technologies, marked the start of one of the region’s most ambitious AI transformation companies. The clearest lesson this year is that scale happens when people and partners execute with intent, and when that alignment is right, progress becomes tangible, immediate, and deeply meaningful.
4) Emma Goode, Founder, 24 fingers
One lesson I learned about scaling impact in 2025: stop building and start listening. The founders who created lasting impact weren’t the ones launching endlessly — they were the ones running small tests and watching for signals. Every campaign, product tweak or message was treated as a mini experiment. Growth accelerated when founders paid attention to behaviour, not opinions, and were willing to pivot early rather than defend a plan that wasn’t working. Listening at scale became the real growth strategy this year.
5) Fahad Al Turki, CEO & Founder, Green Sand Concepts
The biggest lesson was that scale only works when your foundation is strong enough to carry it. In 2025, I learned that brand mythology, operational excellence, and team alignment must grow in sync. You can’t scale a concept whose identity isn’t crystal clear, or a kitchen whose systems can’t travel. We slowed down where needed; codifying lore, elevating design standards, and empowering teams, so that every new space felt like a natural chapter rather than a copy-paste. Impact isn’t a function of footprint; it’s a function of coherence. When your story, systems, and people lock together, scale becomes a multiplier instead of risk.
6) Hachem Mahfoud, Founder, RBT Collective
In 2025, we proved impact is not created by isolated projects, it’s created by connected systems. “RBT” means “to link” in Arabic, and connection is at the core of our work. We define impact as the moment when partners can run the solution themselves, when the system becomes simple, transparent, and part of everyday operations. Impact happens when collaboration turns circularity into infrastructure. This year reinforced that lasting change comes from systems people adopt, maintain, and scale together.
7) Hannan Moti, co-founder, iCodejr
2025 taught me that meaningful scale comes from going deeper, not wider. We focused on building strong local foundations, trusted B2B partnerships, teacher training systems, and high-quality AI & robotics experiences before expanding globally. That discipline helped us scale from the UAE into India and Europe with confidence. The key lesson: impact multiplies when you obsess over operational excellence at the micro level. Once the engine is tight, scaling becomes a strategic choice, not a gamble.
8) Kanessa Muluneh, Founder & CEO, MULU
In 2025, I learned that scaling isn’t about headcount — it’s about working with the right talent who can build. A smaller team with exceptional people will outperform a crowded office every time.
9) Khawla Hammad, Founder and CEO, Takalam
Impact means giving people practical and accessible ways to look after their mental well-being, as well as a safe space to talk when they are ready. The biggest lesson for me is that scaling mental health support should never mean replacing human connection. Technology should be used to protect and extend it.
10) Mahmoud Abusway, Founder & CEO, Esqyre
Scalable impact emerges not from tighter control but from building systems people trust. Sustainable scale is driven by clarity, trust and empowered teams, not micromanagement.
11) Marisa Kamall, Founder, GAIA
In 2025, we scaled by going deeper, not wider. Sustainable impact comes from environments where people genuinely grow. Build depth first, and scale becomes a by-product.
12) Martin Popilka, Founder, P1 Energy
We turned the refinery itself into a product. We built a modular, quick-to-deploy system that enables local production of 100% fossil-free, drop-in fuels anywhere in the world.
13) Mohamed Afifi, Co-Founder, HIFI
Impact scales fastest when infrastructure fades into the background. Flexibility is the new efficiency.
14) Michael Jabri-Pickett, Founder & Managing Director, This. Is. Dubai
Have a plan in place, know your target audience, and then be prepared — with almost no data and only your instincts — to change direction.
15) Mona Faraj, Co-Founder & CEO, ExploreTECH
Scaling impact is not about doing more; it’s about focusing on what truly moves the needle and building with the industry, not for it.
16) Muna Mustafa, Co-Founder, SupperClub Middle East
Prepare every department for growth and still expect things to break along the way. Rapid scale brings unpredictable challenges.
17) Nesma Amin, CEO & Co-Founder, Aziza
Stay agile while listening deeply to our users. Every drop-off and feedback became an opportunity to understand our community better.
18) Nuwaid Pocker, CEO & Founder, Dieture
Scaling impact meant creating systems that transform preventive health into a regional, technology-led platform.
19) Rami Tabbara, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Stake
We scaled impact by expanding access to more forms of real estate ownership across new geographies and investment products.
20) Ruairi Tubrid, Founder, HealthStay.io
We scaled impact by staying relentlessly focused on the problem we solve and the ROI we deliver to hospitals.
21) Sahar Karoubi, Founder, Bambuyu
Impact at scale requires listening closely to local insights and adapting quickly. Progress accelerates when brands and partners work together.
22) Wesley Crook, CEO, FP Block
Real progress comes from consistent, focused execution, not from chasing momentum.
